Masai
Masculine · “one who speaks Maa”
Masai is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 864 boys against 18 girls since 1880.
Masai is the name English gives to the Maa-speaking people of Kenya and Tanzania — though the people's own word is Maa, and Maasai is how they spell it themselves.
How old is the name Masai?
Masai first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Masai is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Masai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Masai most popular?
Masai peaked in 2025, reaching #1509 nationally. Today it ranks #1509, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Masai appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Maa to Masai
The story of Masai
The Maasai moved south along the Rift Valley from the lower Nile over several centuries and by the nineteenth century held a vast territory across what is now Kenya and Tanzania. Their pastoral life, age-set system and distinctive dress made them among the most photographed peoples on earth. Masai appears in American given-name records from the 1990s, one of a set of African names adopted in that period.
Meaning
one who speaks Maa
From Maa, the name of the language, plus the sense of a speaker of it — so Maasai means 'one who speaks Maa'. The double-a spelling is the community's own; the single-a Masai is the older colonial English rendering. The language belongs to the Nilotic family of the upper Nile.
How the name formed
- Maa
- Maasai
- Masai
Related forms: Maasai · Wamasai
Pronouncing Masai
mah-SYE
Two syllables, stress on the second. Some American speakers say MAH-say with the stress at the front.
Nicknames for Masai
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 2025116 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1509reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +30.3%116 in 2025, from 89
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Masai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maasai in Maa — spelling variant
- Wamasai in Swahili — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey.
Masais among us
people named Masai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,725 born in 2025 was named Masai
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Laroy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Masai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Laroy climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Laroy's path sketches the road Masai is walking now.
Masai is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Masai is headed
Masai looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 36% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Masai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Masai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It names a living people with a documented history and a language of their own.
- Two syllables built on open vowels, which carries well.
- The Maa language connection is transparent once explained.
- Maasai is the community's own spelling, and this is the colonial-era rendering.
- It is the name of a people rather than a personal name in that tradition.
- The stress placement splits between two readings.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Masai
Masculine · #1509 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Masais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Masai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Masai in 2025?
- Masai ranks #1509 among US boy names in 2025, with 116 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Masai?
- About 1 in every 14,725 US boys born in 2025 was named Masai — 116 in all.
- Will my child share the name Masai with classmates?
- Masai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Masai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zackary#1509 · Brent#1509 · Tristen#1509 · Freddie#1509 · Gavriel#1514 · Jahmari#1514 · Lamar#1514 · Wolfgang#1514
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Masai? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Masai and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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